The Rosetta Stone is an Ancient Egyptian artifact which was instrumental in advancing modern understanding of hieroglyphic writing. The stone is a Ptolemaic era stele with carved text made up of three translations of a single passage: two in Egyptian language scripts (hieroglyphic and Demotic) and one in classical Greek. It was created in 196 BC, discovered by the French in 1799 at Rashid (a harbour on the Mediterranean coast in Egypt which the French referred to as Rosetta during Napoleon Bonaparte's campaign in Egypt), and contributed greatly to the decipherment of the principles of hieroglyphic writing in 1822 by the British scientist Thomas Young and the French scholar Jean-Francois Champollion. Comparative translation of the stone assisted in understanding many previously undecipherable examples of hieroglyphic writing. The text of the Rosetta Stone is a decree from Ptolemy V, describing the repealing of various taxes and instructions to erect statues in temples.
The Stone is 114.4 centimeters (45 in) high at its highest point, 72.3 centimeters (28.5 in) wide, and 27.9 centimeters (11 in) thick. Weighing approximately 760 kilograms (1,676 lb), it was originally thought to be granite or basalt but is currently described as granodiorite and is dark blue-pinkish-grey in color. The stone has been on public display at The British Museum since 1802.[1]
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